


Gods and Monsters

by CannedBread



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Fantasy, Murder, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 21:23:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18269579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CannedBread/pseuds/CannedBread
Summary: Original work fantasy-fiction.A tyrant seizes power and the Empire must rise to defeat him or be crushed beneath his rule. One boy knows his dark secret and an army is forming, but will they be enough to stop the wave of chaos spreading across the land?





	1. Vidaelus - Chaos Rising

_“We live in a world of uncertainty. Where Gods and monsters walk among us, rising from the ashes of the old world anew. At a time when we must question who are truly the Gods and who have been monsters all along. For generations, the answers have been unclear, but muddied waters eventually settle and the truth has begun to show itself. Now it is time to throw off the darkness of the past. Now is the time to bring a new dawn to our lands. We will find our way. We will prosper. Together we will build our return to greatness.”_

 They had been pretty words. Ultimately empty but that hardly mattered. The cheering crowd ate them up all the same. _Fools._ Vidaelus stared out across the city from his high tower window. His city, he reminded himself. His land. His people. Sivoal was dead and power was finally his.

His tutors had always droned on about the day his time would come, preparing him for leadership when his father’s rule would end. They had, Vidaelus thought with a smirk, expected Sivoal to reign until old age finally took him. But, could anyone really blame him for being impatient? Father had been as much a fool as the cheering masses in the streets. Never taking advantage of the power he held and what was the point of power if one didn’t wield it? Vidaelus understood what a powerful weapon it was from the beginning. If Sivoal wouldn’t use it properly, then why not take it for himself?

Removing his father as an obstacle had been simple enough. The man was no great warrior and too trusting by far. Vidaelus had spent years learning every secret passage, every hidden corner in the palace. There was nowhere he couldn’t find even in the dead of night when there was not a sliver of light to see by. All he needed to do was wait for an opportunity. He wouldn’t make a foolish mistake that would give his plot away. A sudden death might have people talking after all.

It had taken some months, but opportunity finally presented itself in the form of an illness. The doctor had been sent for and Sivoal had been advised to keep to his bed. Nothing serious, they’d been assured. It would pass in a matter of days with proper care. Vidaelus had looked the part of the concerned son and the servants fretted as servants often did. It all seemed perfectly ordinary and that was how he wanted it.

Darkness fell and he’d waited, patiently, for the palace to quiet for the night. He’d slipped out through a hidden door, away from the prying eyes of the guards, through the maze of passages that snaked their way between the walls. Silent as a shadow, he stepped with confidence. This was his destiny and he would finally seize it. No more waiting.

The secret doorway into Sivoal’s sleeping chambers opened without a sound. Vidaelus could hear his laboured breathing from where he stood in the shadows. The illness made his chest rattle with each breath but they stayed steady and calm. Sleeping breaths, unaware of any intruder. Vidaelus stepped out and slinked to his bedside. In the faint moonlight, Vidaelus thought, he already looked dead. Shadows cut deeply into the lines of his face and made him look gaunt. The pale moonlight drained the colour from his face. If he looked the part, it hardly seemed much to finish the job.

A drop of poison was all it took. Quick and painless. A better death than he could have hoped for, by his son’s estimation. Vidaelus counted his rattling breaths. Five in total before they stopped entirely. He never woke. All the better. The servants would find him in the morning. He would put on his best face of shock and grief, but he would rally his strength to take the throne and rule. Ever the good son.

The smile on his face froze in place when the silence of the room was broken, not by himself but by someone across the room. The sound of a tray being bumped, rattling the dishes from his father’s last untouched meal. In the dark of the room, he hadn’t seen, but the sudden noise snapped his full attention to the spot near the door. It was hard to make him out, the shape of a kitchen boy nearly obscured by darkness. Vidaelus’ mind scrambled for an explanation. How could this have happened? What was the boy doing there? All of his careful planning crumbling to dust because of one insignificant little wretch.

The light from the hall was blinding. His hand came up without thinking to shield his eyes from it. The door had been thrown open and the dark shape of the boy had vanished. Vidaelus spit curses and dashed to the door after him but he had disappeared down one of the many hallways. If he went after him, the guards would certainly spot him. There would be explanations to make, lies to weave, his perfect plan coming apart. Would any guard believe the word of a kitchen boy? One who had been where he didn’t belong?

Vidaelus closed the door and stood in the dark. A few deep breaths to calm himself and slow his pounding heart. No. His plan was a good one. He would not be undone by one boy. Not now. Not after all this time. He pressed his ear to the door and listened, counting the seconds as the turned in to minutes. There were no shouts from the hall. No alarm raised. The palace was as quiet as it ever was so late at night. He waited there for the better part of an hour, just to be certain.

No kitchen boy would stop him, he assured himself.

Back through the passageway, he’d gone back to his own sleeping chambers. For now, he was safe. In the morning he would find the kitchen boy and have him dealt with. A simple matter for the Lord General. He liked the sound of that. _Lord General Vidaelus._ The thought of it carried him off to sleep.

The days since then had been full, as he had expected. The death of the Lord General has sent the palace into near chaos. Funeral arrangements needed to be made, addresses to the people, statesmen from across the empire had come to pay their respects to the fallen Lord and to the new. Vidaelus played his part well, as he’d practised for years. He was the grieving son, reluctantly taking up the mantle of power in his father’s absence. He was the brave, stoic leader they needed in these troubled times, in the wake of such tragedy. He stood before his people as the new Lord General and spoke flowery words of hope, promising a better future. Words they were eager to accept. Just as he had planned.

All but for one loose end.

A runaway kitchen boy had been reported. Vidaelus was certain he knew which one. Anad Frann could run from the palace, but this was his land now. There was nowhere for the boy to hide that he wouldn’t find.

It was only a matter of time.

 


	2. Anad - The Witness

Anad Frann was nobody. At least by the standards of the land. He had no family apart from his sister, Romy, no money, no property, no title. In his fifteen years, no one had ever really taken note of him. Years of getting by on the scraps they could find had left him short for his age and too thin for his frame. When he caught his reflection, he saw his father looking back at him. The same dark hair and sharp green eyes. The same brows that made him look as if he was always frowning.

Romy looked like their mother. Her unruly curls and big almond eyes. The spray of freckles across her nose. She’d been so young when they lost them both. Anad was never sure if she really remembered them. But he’d worked hard to keep the memories alive for her. He told her stories over and over of everything he could remember.

The job of kitchen boy had been a godsend. Finally, he would have a little money. They could buy real food and have a warm place to sleep. It was hard work, but he didn’t mind. It was still better than being out on the street. The scraps from the kitchen were better than the ones from the inns and pubs as well. Things were finally looking up. He had even managed to get Romy a job sweeping floors and stoking fires.

For a while things were good. Anad’s worries had started to fade. Romy was finally in a safe place and a tiny ember of hope had started to grow within him. It was a feeling he’d almost forgotten. For his sister’s sake, he’d learn to fake it, but real hope had slipped away from him over the years. Maybe it was that complacency that let his mind wander. He could never be sure. But it was a mistake he would come to regret more than any before.

The Lord General had taken ill and was confined to bed. His meals were to be taken to him and the tray collected afterwards. It was simple enough and Anad took casual note of it. For the most part, his duties kept him to the kitchens and he rarely went out into the palace or near the Lord General’s chambers. But word spreads fast among the servants, gossip traded as their own form of currency. There wasn’t much that happened in the palace that they all didn’t hear about within the hour. So when one of the older boys, a steward called Kend, had been caught stealing brandy and dragged off by the guards, it hadn’t seemed completely out of the ordinary when he’d been asked to go and fetch the Lord General’s dinner tray at the end of the evening.

Until then, he’d had his regular duties to see to. Scrubbing pots and sweeping out the hearth. Some of the other boys needed help carrying in supplies for the next morning’s breakfast. There was much to do and not much time to do it if he wanted to get any sleep at all. By the time Anad had finished, all he wanted to do was to fall into bed.

Romy was already curled up on her half of their small bed, fast asleep, when he made it to the servant’s quarters. He pulled her blanket up and tucked it carefully around her before sitting down to tug off his shoes and rub some of the soreness out of his feet. There had been some good leftovers sent back to the kitchens the other boys hadn’t snapped up first, enough to keep his stomach from rumbling until the morning bowl of porridge. Anad licked his lips, trying to get one last taste of the bit of pheasant he’d grabbed before it went in the bin for the hogs.

_Shit._

The thought struck him like lightning. With everything else, he’d completely forgotten. It was his job to fetch the Lord General’s tray. If the morning steward took up breakfast and found it still sitting there, he’d get a lashing for certain. Anad rushed to pull his shoes back on and ran for the door. He’d have to find a way to get to the Lord General’s chambers without running into the night guard. As quickly as he could, he made his way back up through the palace.

Late at night, the halls were quiet. Most of the servants had turned in and the only people still walking the halls were the few guards on duty. Anad thanked the Gods for Lord General Sivoal, a man known widely as a peaceful ruler, he’d never kept an abundance of guards as he saw no need for the added security. There had been a few close calls, but Anad managed to find his way through to his chambers without much trouble. The servant’s passageways giving him an easier path than another might have taken. The key he’d been given still sat in his pocket and he carefully opened the door, working slowly as not to disturb the Lord General. Slipping in quickly, he shut the door behind him. The bright hall light might have woken his master and that would have been the end of his short career as a kitchen boy.

It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the dark. Anad stood blinking near the door, waiting until he could see again. Across the room, he could hear the Lord General’s rattling breaths. He wondered silently if the illness was catching and then wondered some more if he was too common to catch a noble’s illness. Anad shook his head at his own foolishness. Lord General or not, they were the same people. Though that didn’t make him feel any better about the possibility of getting sick.

The room came in to focus and he scolded himself for wasting time. Stepping carefully over to the desk closest to the door, he spotted the dinner tray where it had been left. Apparently, his master hadn’t been hungry. None of the food had been touched. Anad quickly pocketed the bread and cheese, taking out a bit of cloth from his pocket and wrapping the meat in it, before tucking it away with the rest of his bounty. There were even a bunch of fat juicy grapes. Romy would be so excited when she saw what he’d brought.

The thoughts of the feast they’d get to have danced through his head and Anad’s mouth watered in anticipation. He was so distracted, he nearly missed the wall panel swinging open across from where he stood.

Anad froze. He didn’t know how he would explain what he was doing there. Nothing he could say would save him from the trouble he’d be in. But then, who would be coming in through the wall? And how? His body made a decision before his mind caught up and he crouched down into the shadows. Maybe, with a little luck, they wouldn’t see him. Maybe they would take a quick look and then leave.

But there was no such luck.

Out from the dark behind the hidden door stepped a figure he knew as well as any in the city, perhaps the entire Empire. The Lord General’s son, Vidaelus, walked out from the shadows to the bedside, apparently oblivious to Anad’s presence. Part of him wanted to say something, to move, to run. But he kept his mouth shut, frozen in place. Watching as Vidaelus slipped a small vial from his pocket and dropped something into the sleeping Lord’s mouth. They both waited in silence, Anad watching in horror as the Lord General took his last breath.

_I have to get help,_ his mind screamed. How that might happen was less a coherent thought. Before it could form in to a plan, a much worse thought dawned on him. He was a witness. He’d watched the Lord General’s son kill him. A nobody from nowhere who’s life was worth nothing. If Vidaelus would kill his own father, what would stop him from killing Anad?

The panic caught him hard and Anad jerked up from where he was crouched. He needed to run, to get away. He needed to get to Romy and they would put as much distance between them and the palace as was possible.

The noise that followed his rush sounded, to him, like the loudest sound any human had ever made. In the silence of the room, it was deafening. Anad nearly shouted in surprise and Vidaelus was already looking directly at him. Any hope of a stealthy getaway has been dashed the moment his shoulder caught the tray on the desk.

There was no time to waste. Duties and Lords be damned. Anad threw open the chamber door and ran. He ran like he’s never run before. Sprinting back the way he came until his legs burned and his lungs screamed. He was certain Vidaelus would follow, but when he finally stopped, there were no footsteps behind him. Not that he would risk falling into a false sense of security. He had a little time, that was all. Enough time to wake up Romy and run.

She was still asleep when he got back to their bunk. It took a few good shakes to wake her up, but he got her sitting up as quickly as he could. “Romy, wake up. We have to go.”

She stared at him blearily, not quite understanding. “Go where? It’s still dark, Anad.”

“I know. We’re leaving.”

Romy looked even more confused. “Why do we have to go? I thought we were staying here to work.”

“Because… listen, I just need you to trust me right now. We’re not safe. I saw something _bad_ and we have to go right now before they find us.”

“Who? Who’s going to find us?”

“The guards. Romy, please. Just trust me. We have to go. Grab your things. _Please.”_

Romy hadn’t seen that look on Anad’s face many times before, but she knew not to argue with it. She crawled off the bed and pulled on her shoes and a sweater, using one of the thin blankets to help Anad tie up their few possessions into a pack. She didn’t ask where they were going and Anad didn’t say. He didn’t have a clear plan beyond getting away from the palace.

A broken storm drain lead to a short drop down into a tunnel that lead out past the palace walls. Anad had found it weeks earlier while he’d been snooping around. He gave Romy a hand down, lowering their pack before jumping down after her. They walked on in silence and, by sunrise, they had made it most of the way across the city. Anad found a dark, sheltered spot under a bridge that wasn’t already claimed by someone else and they finally stopped to rest.

Romy sat down next to him and leaned against his side. “Are you going to tell me why we had to run now?”

“The Lord General is dead.”

For a minute she didn’t say anything, she just looked at him like he’d grown a second head.

“Vidaelus killed him.”

Romy blinked, unsure if she’d heard him right. “How do you know?”

“I saw him kill the Lord Ruler. I was in his chambers, to get his dinner tray. It was dark, he didn’t know I was there. But… he saw me. I ran.” Anad stared straight ahead, not really seeing. All he could think of was the look on Vidaelus’ face.

Romy’s arms wrapped around his middle and her head rested on his shoulder. “We’ll figure it out, Anad. We always do. You and me.”

His arm curled around her shoulder and hugged her closer to his side. “You and me.”


End file.
